In My Kitchen August 2015

In my kitchen we’ve had lots of fresh dates from our garden date palms and many have been given to family and friends. Snipped from a branch, these fresh dates are called Al-Khoneizy and are ready to eat. To keep a supply of dates to enjoy throughout the year, we will leave the rest of the dates on the date palm to dry for about a month before picking. One of my favorite date recipes is this easy date and banana dessert, it only takes minutes to prepare and handy if you need to entertain on short notice.

After a conversation with Fifi who was on a quest to find locally sourced eggs from happy hens, these organic eggs are from my sitter in-laws neighbours friends chickens. In Bahrain it has proved quite difficult to find local free range farm fresh eggs… unless you are willing to keep a few chickens yourself.

In my kitchen are colorful dishes from Turkey, a thoughtful gift from Georgina, back from her recent travels. Couldn’t resist buying this stylish spoon, it was the last piece… I guess you can never have too many spoons.
Happy to announce… after waiting almost six years, we finally have limes growing on our lime tree. Making mojito’s and nojito’s in my kitchen to celebrate… cheers 🙂

Baked a rustic vegetable tart made with home-made pastry. Depending on the vegetables at hand, this savory tart was filled with aubergines, caramelized onions and tomatoes. We also love Yotam Ottolenghi’s green bean and freekeh salad, I have made this dish often… one delicious way of eating some healthy greens.

Have made Glenda’s Mum’s delicious pumpkin fruit cake recipe a couple of times now, it’s a lovely moist cake and keeps well. Also, baked a lemon poppy-seed cake which needs an obligatory cappuccino on the side… well, in my kitchen it does.

This was my first attempt at making goats milk yoghurt and although others in the house preferred yoghurt made with cow’s milk, I found the mild flavor of goats milk very pleasant. The goats yoghurt had a loose consistency and this was my only gripe… straining through a cloth thickened it. You can use J Cloths for straining yogurts or curds, a tip picked up at a cheese making classI attended some years back. Decided to strain the goats yoghurt for 10 hours, ending up with a soft tangy goats cheese to spread on some crackers.
In my kitchen are new yoghurt cultures for making Bio Yogurt, have not tried them yet. Although I have been very happy with the results of the Bulgarian culture…apparently bio yogurt is more gut friendly.

This wraps up yet another In My Kitchen post, joining the host Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordialand other bloggers from around the globe… showcasing kitchen treasures.

Wow, goats milk yogurt and cheese both from the same process. I’ve had mixed results making cows milk yoghurt using a dollop of yoghurt as a starter, so the idea of a proper starter culture appeals – thank you for the tip.

So far I have had great results using heirloom yogurt cultures and the resulting yogurt tastes quite different than using a dollop of shop bought yogurt as a starter. Still need to try the bio cultures as they just arrived.

Moya, YAY for fresh limes at last! (I need to check out your mojito/nojito recipes…) Can’t begin to imagine how wonderful fresh dates are, too, right off the tree. Your baked goodies look tempting — so does that green bean salad, yum. Have fun making yogurt — and thanks for the cool tip about using a “J cloth” for straining! xo

Kim, I had almost given up on my lime tree ever producing limes… but finally celebrating with mojito’s. It really is wonderful having such an abundance of fresh dates in our garden and that we can share some with family and friends too 🙂